Connections : Target Analytics

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q2 2009

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 17:02:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced last week the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the second quarter of 2009.

The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 77 organizations, including over 36 million donors and more than 68 million gifts totaling almost $2 billion in revenue.

The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Revenue and Donor Trends
Index revenue declined a median 7.7% from Q2 2008 year-to-date to Q2 2009 year-to-date. This continues declines that were reported at the end of 2008 and in the first quarter of 2009. Revenue declines were widespread across the index with only 18% of the organizations in the index had positive revenue growth over the period.

Donor numbers in the index fell a median 3.5% from Q2 2008 YTD to Q2 2009 YTD. Donors have been declining consistently for the past three years; the index has not experienced positive year-to-year donor growth since the 2005 U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes. 34% of the organizations in the index had positive donor growth from Q2 2008 YTD to Q2 2009 YTD.

Donor declines are, again, due primarily to declines in new donor numbers, which fell 7.6% from the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009. Fewer than 32% of the organizations in the index had positive new donor growth over the period. For most organizations, overall donor declines continue to be caused mainly by declines in new donor acquisition.

Over the past five years, from the twelve months ending Q2 2004 to the twelve months ending Q2 2009, new donor numbers have fallen a cumulative median 9.7%. This is an effective annual rate of decline of 1.9% per year. New donor declines have been particularly steep since the start of the recession. New donor numbers fell a cumulative median 10.9% from the twelve months ending Q4 2007, when the recession began, to the twelve months ending Q2 2009.

Trends Across Different Organizations
The societal benefit sector had flat donor growth this quarter while all other sectors saw declines. As with revenue, the religion and animal welfare sectors had the smallest donor declines. The relief sector had the largest revenue and donor declines in the index in the first half of 2009. This may be in part a rebound from strong disaster giving in 2008.

New donor acquisition was down from the first half of 2008 to the first half of 2009 for almost all sectors in the index. This was the primary cause of overall donor declines in the index. Religious organizations were the only ones to see any positive growth in new donor acquisition in the first half of 2009. Environmental and relief organizations had the largest new donor declines over this period.

Click here to get a complete copy of the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance.

How to Reconnect With Donors Who Stopped Giving

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:04:00 GMT

Lawrence Henze, Managing Director of Target Analytics will be a guest on The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Live Discussions to take questions about reconnecting with donors. The "How to Reconnect With Donors Who Stopped Giving" session will be on Tuesday, August 11th at 12pm EDT. You can submit a question online and watch the discussion unfold too.

Lawrence previously did a Q&A on this blog about "Raising Money During Challenging Times" and is a very respected expert in the nonprofit sector about donor analytics and predictive modeling.

The latest edition of FundraisingSuccess has an article by him called "10 Things You Need to Know About Reactivating Lapsed Donors" that is worth reading. Here's one excerpt that I thought was very interesting:

"Target Analytics' research indicates that there often is an inverse relationship between the frequency of solicitation and donor retention or movement to ultimate giving potential. Many people recommend that you solicit for the second gift as you thank for the first, but what effect does that have on your retention rate? If your goal is to maximize the number of donors annually without fearing high attrition rates, that may be one strategy (not mine), but it is unlikely to result in donor growth and success in major and planned giving. Think before you ask over and over — it might not create the best image for your organization and flies in the face of donor- centered fundraising. It is important to fully understand how your organization solicits through all channels — direct mail, telemarketing and e-mail/Internet — and investigate opportunities in order to reduce and simplify solicitation activity."

So put The Chronicle of Philanthropy's Live Discussions session on your calendar for Tuesday, August 11th at 12pm EDT. Don't forget that you can submit a question online before the event.

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q1 2009

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 18:02:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the first quarter of 2009. The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 79 organizations, including over 35 million donors and more than 66 million gifts totaling almost $2 billion in revenue. The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Revenue and Donor Trends
All key metrics declined for the index as a whole for the first quarter of 2009 as compared to the first quarter of 2008. All of the industry sectors analyzed in the index had revenue declines over this period, and all but one sector had declines in donors as well. For the first time since the index began in 2002, overall revenue per donor declined; revenue per donor declines were experienced by two-thirds of the organizations in the index.

Index revenue declined a median 7.8% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Revenue declines were widespread across the index with only 23% of the organizations in the index had positive revenue growth from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Donor numbers in the index fell a median 5.8% from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. 30% of the organizations in the index had positive donor growth from Q1 2008 to Q1 2009. Donors have been declining consistently for the past three years; the index has not experienced positive year-to-year donor growth since the 2005 U.S. Gulf Coast hurricanes.

In evaluating Q1 2009 trends, it is important to remember that first-quarter rates of growth and decline are often greater than eventual year-end results because they are calculated on relatively small numbers of gifts and revenue amounts. This is further exaggerated because, for many organizations, the first quarter of the calendar year is the slowest fundraising period, with smaller proportions of gifts and revenue coming in during that quarter than any other quarter of the year.

Long-Term Trends
over the past five years, including the record tsunami and hurricane giving periods, index revenue has grown at significantly lower than normal rates. From the twelve months ending Q1 2004 to the twelve months ending Q1 2009, index revenue grew a cumulative median 9.0%. This is an effective annual growth rate of 1.9% per year over these five years. Donors have remained essentially flat over the past five years. Donors declined a cumulative median 0.4% from the twelve months ending Q1 2004 to the twelve months ending Q1 2009. This is an effective annual rate of decline of -0.1%.

Target Analytics noted that declining donor populations across the index may be due to a mix of factors including economic changes, a changing generational profile in the United States, changing attitudes of donors about giving, and a change in focus by fundraisers toward higher-dollar donors. The index excludes iIndividual payments greater than $5,000, soft credits, and matching gift payments.

Performance Differences
There are two new sectors in the index in 2009. These are the arts and culture sector and the religion sector. All sectors saw decreases in revenue from the first quarter of 2008 to the first quarter of 2009. The religion and animal welfare sectors had the smallest revenue declines and the arts and culture, health, and societal benefit sectors had the largest revenue declines. The international relief sector was the only sector to have an increase in donor numbers this quarter, in contrast to the rest of the index. As with revenue, the arts and culture, health, and societal benefit sectors had the largest donor declines.

Click here to get a complete copy of the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance.

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q4 2008

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:04:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the fourth quarter of 2008. The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 75 organizations, including over 36 million donors and more than 68 million gifts totaling over $2 billion in revenue. The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Revenue and Donor Trends
Index revenue declined a median -3.3% from 2007 to 2008. Revenue declines were not entirely universal across the index, however; 37% of the organizations in the index did have positive revenue growth from 2007 to 2008. Donor numbers in the index fell a median -3.0% from 2007 to 2008. Donors have been declining consistently for the past three years, but it should be noted that 40% of the organizations in the index had positive donor growth from 2007 to 2008.

Declining new donor acquisition was not the only reason for the decline in overall donor populations, however; retention rates also fell in 2008 by a median -1.4% from the previous year, and reactivation rates fell a median -6.0% over the same period. Revenue per donor has increased for the past three years, although the rate of growth slowed in 2008. Revenue per donor grew 1.2% from 2007 to 2008, after 4.3% growth the previous year. Just over half (56%) of the organizations in the index had revenue per donor increases in 2008.

New Online Giving Trends
For the first time, the index included trends in online giving. In 2008, a median 77% of all revenue came in through the mail, a median 4% came in through telemarketing, and a median 7% came in over the internet. However, the proportion of revenue coming in online has grown over the past five years. In 2004, internet gifts made up a median 3% of all revenue. But by 2008, the internet accounted for a median 7% of total revenue.

As with overall giving, most new donors continue to be acquired through the mail. In 2008 a median 87% of all new donors were acquired through the mail for the index as a whole, while only 9% of all new donors were acquired online. Also as with overall giving, however, the proportion of new donors being acquired online is growing. Over the past five years, the proportion of donors acquired online rose from a median of 4% in 2004 to 9% in 2008

Performance Differences
The index's analysis found that two sectors – animal welfare and international relief – had consistently strong performances this year, in stark contrast to the rest of the index. Both of these sectors had increases in revenue and donor numbers in 2008 while all other sectors had declines. Most other key metrics were strong for these two sectors as well, including revenue per donor and retention rates.

Certain sectors – particularly human services – performed unusually strongly in the third quarter of 2008, accounting for the slight overall rebound in fundraising performance in that quarter. There may be several different reasons for the strong third-quarter performance of human services organizations. As the economy worsened in 2008, donors may have felt that it was even more important to give to those organizations that provide services to the needy.

There may also have been an increase in interest in human services issues highlighted by the 2008 presidential campaigns. And organizations may have chosen to drop October and November mailings early to avoid competition with an expected glut of election-related direct mail. This last action may have had the effect of depressing fourth-quarter results as well.

Click here to get a complete copy of the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance.

2009 Target User Forum - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 12:10:00 GMT

It's day two of the Target User Forum here in Boston. The morning starts off with the keynote session Josh Bernoff, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Josh is one of the most sought after speakers on the topic of practical, data-based strategies for getting results from social networks.

I had a chance to talk with Josh before his presentation. He took some questions that I thought readers of the blog would be interested in having answered. So here's a brief Q&A:

Q: What is a social media trend you’re seeing in 2009 that’s new or different than in 2008?

Quantitatively, despite the recession, companies are even more interested in participating in social media in 2009 than they were in 2008, and consumer growth in participation is also up. Qualitatively, businesspeople are starting to pay a lot more attention to Twitter and are less interested in blogs. Communities are extremely interesting to all sorts of companies right now.

Q: Many nonprofits are looking for the ROI on social media. Isn’t it more about Return on Engagement? How should they be thinking about the metrics behind all this?

Your metrics and ROI depend on your objectives, as we tried to hammer home in the Groundswell book. Every business investment should have a return, so ROI is important to measure. But if you’re looking to spread awareness, you’ll measure changes in buzz; if you’re looking to energize your biggest backers, you’ll measure how many friends they reach; and if you’re looking to support the people you serve, you might examine the number of participants. The important thing is to measure something that matters to you, not just traffic.

Q: Often times lessons learned in the for-profit world can be applied to the non-profit world. What is a trend or tactic you’ve seen that corporations have learned that nonprofits could benefit from knowing about? Are there any major strategies that might only work in the nonprofit space?

Non-profits have fans, just like other brands. You want to give your fans the chance to spread the word. While this is a great idea for Nike or Coca-cola, it’s potentially even more valuable for a non-profit. Also, we are slowly driving the fuzzy-headed thinking (“Hey, why don’t we do a blog! It’ll be great for us!”) out of marketers’ heads as they concentrate on getting real work done here. Non-profits that want to succeed should skip the fuzzy-headed part and go right to clear objectives and matching technologies to those objectives.

Josh's keynote was titled "Engaging Donors in a World Transformed by Social Technologies." He started off by noting that while we are in a recession, the same rules of marketing and awareness still apply. Josh talked about the funnel that people go through: Eyeballs, Awareness, Consideration, Preference, Purchase, and Loyalty. The problem in this environment is that there is a black hole between Consideration and Preference right now. And social media is what is influencing people about what they buy and where they give.

If you only focus on the technologies then you'll get "Groundswell Approach-Avoidance Syndrome" and this isn't good. The reason this happens is because people know something big is happening, but they don't understand what is really happening. Using an example from Comcast, he discussed how social media won't fix all your problems, but it will help fix your message.

Josh makes the point that this isn't just about the social networking websites. Search engines love social media content. And that means that your message get spread in lots of ways whether you like it or not. People don't take information from organizations anymore. They are now taking it from each other. The key point is to engage in the conversation. Embrace the groundswell.

He then went through the POST process that's outlined in Groundswell. People | Objectives | Strategies | Technologies. Josh spent some time talking about the different kinds of people that use social media. They aren't all the same. They are Creators, Critics, Collectors, Joiners, Spectators, and Inactives. The percentage of these groups keeps changing and the demographic makeup of these groups keep changing as well. "If you don't know anything else about your groups, then knowing their age can tell you a lot," says Bernoff. And then Josh showed how these groups apply to high net worth individuals, volunteers, and low income individuals. Some patterns in the storm with the numbers he presented. Matching these groups or roles to specific objecitves is the next key step.

Josh talked about a story from M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and what they are doing online to engage cancer patients. It's an example of a very focused community, built with the help of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network, and it allows these organizations to listen to what patients are saying. What is the problem faced by your donors, volunteers, etc., and how can you help address them in an open way? Josh then talked about the US Campaign for Burma website and how this nonprofit has used social media to drive traffic, attention, and awareness about their cause.

The key is to engage, energize, and provide support for people. One example was from Massachusetts General Hospital and their use of carepages. The most surprising social network that Josh has seen is Homeless Nation from Canada. The Brooklyn Musuem is another example of how nonprofits are using social media to embrace people in new ways. They have built an online community that allows people in interact in very cool ways. Josh closed by noting that while the groundswell might be threatening — it is something that you can turn to your advantage.

(Updating and Tweeting Regularly)

2009 Target User Forum - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 12:30:00 GMT

A lot of things are going on in Boston this week at the 2009 Target User Forum. It will be a busy three days of sessions, meetings, and getting to connect with some of Blackbaud's customers.

This morning starts off with the opening session called "Your Mission IS Possible: Blackbaud's Commitment to the Success of Nonprofits" and was presented by Target Analytics President Lee Gartley, Blackbaud CEO Marc Chardon, and Blackbaud CTO Shaun Sullivan.

Lee Gartley is giving some opening remarks. There are 40+ sessions at Target User Forum this year that include clients, partners, nonprofit thought leaders, and technology experts. The focus of the sessions are around Team Approach best practices, getting ready for Blackbaud Enterprise CRM, online fundraising and innovations in integrated marketing, and fresh ideas to help nonprofits fundraise more effectively. Lee closed with at quote from Louis Pasteur — "Chance favors the prepared mind."

Marc Chardon started by talking about the current fundraising environment and how it relates to sailing. He recounted some rough seas he once encountered off the coast of Ireland. Marc posed the question — If we were sailing, where would we be? The nonprofit industry has moved from "Clear Skies / Fair Winds" to "Stormy Weather" over the past year. There are changes and shifts in giving patterns, channels, and other donor activity. Some organizations are feeling it more than others. Some aren't being impacted at all. A key factor has been how well has the nonprofit built a stable base of long term supporters. There is an increased need for nonprofits to adapt to changing conditions.

Shaun Sullivan is up next and speaking about Blackbaud Enterprise CRM and the Infinity Platform. Shaun showed an example of a 3rd party developer who used the Infinity API to publish event information to Google. He demonstrated how the integrated platform allows for donor management, events management, wealth screening, online capabilities, and a bunch of other cool stuff all in one application. Shaun showed how both online and offline information is presented within the same platform for BBEC customers. He closed up his presentation by showing the reach capabilities of BBEC and how information can be passed dynamically to something like an iPhone.

(Updating and Tweeting Regularly)

The Baudcast - donorCentrics Discussion

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:03:00 GMT

The latest episode of The Baudcast (iTunes | direct) is all about the 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis. The report has generated a lot of discussion and buzz in both the media and the blogosphere.

The panel discussion includes Chad Norman (Internet Marketing Manager), Melanie Mathos (Public Relations Manager), Allison Van Diest (Senior Internet Product Marketing Manager), Rob Harris (Vice President - Analytic Products, Target Analytics), Roger Craver (Founder, Craver, Matthew, Smith & Company and The Agitator blog), Hildy Gottlieb (President, Community-Driven Institute), and myself.

Here are some quotes that I pulled from episode 24:

"The reason they don't return online is that they get a fuller experience in terms of information and the relationship building process through the other channels. That's not to say that they wouldn't return online. It's just that in my judgement and the research we've done indicates that the online environment is a mile wide and an inch deep. Where things work best with online is when it's integrated." – Roger Craver

"Techies have a tendency to be in love with tools. As we get online the more we're focusing on one small thing — should we have a Facebook campaign, should we have a Twitter campaign, should we have a whatever campaign — versus how does that fit into to that overall integrated strategy which all flows from the data." – Hildy Gottlieb

"The larger average gifts of online donors pretty much trumps everything. Because they start out at higher levels the overall retention rates aren't all that different, although online is lower. Where it's really apparent is if look at a $50 online giver versus a $50 direct mail giver. But even that aside — the (online) gifts are so large that even if they aren't as loyal their lifetime value is still quite high. That just points to what the opportunity is if you can keep them loyal through integrated marketing." – Rob Harris

"Maybe by its very nature (direct mail) won't appeal to this young group. It's not leveraging just the channels we have today in new mixes that will bring in younger donors into a more engage state, but instead responding to what younger donors need. How you help people brand themselves as your 'missionaries', and the easiest way to do that is online. Enable them to not just tell your story for you, but tell something about themselves and who they are based on their relationship to the organization." - Allison Van Diest

"Have a strategy behind what you're doing and have that strategy go beyond just fundraising. Have the strategy start with what we are looking to accomplish for our community, our region, or the geographic area we serve. Who do we need to engage, what do we need to do to accomplish that, and how does fundraising fit into that. But if the strategy doesn't start with what we want to accomplish and move backwards from that, then you're just going to keep picking at different tools and eventually be saying 'well that didn't work'." – Hildy Gottlieb

A really great panel and a very interesting discussion. I highly recommend listening to this episode of The Baudcast.

Reactions to the 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 13:03:00 GMT

There has been a lot of discussion about the 2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis since it was released last week. The blogs, Twitter, email lists, and sidebar chats in-between have been busy with a lot of activity. Here is a recap of a few of the articles and blog postings:

Study Shows First-Time Online Donors Often Do Not Return
Stephanie Strom — The New York Times
"The findings suggest that while the Internet can be a valuable fund-raising tool for charities, particularly in soliciting gifts after disasters like Hurricane Katrina, it is not a replacement for direct mail or other forms of fund-raising."

Getting Repeat Gifts From First-Time Online Donors Proves Challenging
Paula Wasley — The Chronicle of Philanthropy
"Target researchers say the findings suggest that nonprofit groups would do well to integrate their online and offline fund-raising programs."

Truths & Myths About Online Donors
Roger Craver — The Agitator
"Effective online fundraising clearly goes beyond technique — such as focusing on “hits” and “open rates” — and must absolutely involve integrating this new channel into the tried and true older channels (dm, telemarketing) to get the most donor value possible."

Do New Online Donors Give Again?
Robert Weiner — TechSoup
"I wonder whether other factors might be at work here. The majority of the nonprofits I have observed do not attempt to re-solicit online donors through online means. Instead, all donors are placed in the same pool and solicited the same way, often through direct mail."

Future of Fundraising is Hiding in Blackbaud Results
Allison Fine — A. Fine Blog
"We are in a period of transition where the old ways of doing things, like direct mail fundraising, may continue for a short time because going back to the old well is easier than figuring out where the new well is and how it works."

Is Online Giving Dead or Alive?
Roger Carr — Everyday Giving Blog
"Online giving is alive and growing, but it is not the only game in town. It also has some limitations that need to be understood. The better you understand the trends in online and offline giving, the better you will be able to build an appropriate fundraising strategy for your profit organization."

Study Finds Online Donors Hard to Retain
Joanne Fritz — About.com Guide to Nonprofits
"There is still no silver bullet for fundraising. Charities must promote their causes across channels. Putting up a website, or having a presence at a social network giving site, is not enough. Capturing information from online donors, so we can follow up in other ways, is just as important as appealing to those donors in the first place."

New Findings About Online Giving
Norman Reiss — Nonprofit Bridge
"So if anyone tells you to focus only your efforts online when seeking new constituents, remind them that it’s too early to phase out traditional methods, such as direct mail."

Juicy stats, benchmarks and lessons on online giving
Katya Andresen — Katya's Non-Profit Marketing Blog
"The best nonprofits have a nice multi-channel outreach program. Don’t assume people want to give in only one way, online or off."

Attention All Shoppers: Online Fundraising Metrics Are In!
Holly Ross — NTEN Blog
"Integrated marketing makes so much sense here. The more ways you communicate with a donor, the more chances you have to be in that right place, at the right time."

2008 donorCentrics Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 12:03:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud Company, has released the 2008 donorCentrics™ Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis. The report is featured in today's edition of The New York Times and covers some of its many findings.

This is a follow-up to the groundbreaking 2006 report and provides insights into the online and offline trends of donors. Over the past three years, Target Analytics has held a series of annual meetings with a total of twenty-four major national non-profit organizations on the subject of online fundraising.

Through these discussions, and aggregating their giving data, an updated picture of integrated fundraising is presented in the new report. The findings represent careful analysis of information from over 9.5 million donors and more than $747 million in donations to the nonprofits in the study.

Key Findings in the Report:

Online giving continues to grow rapidly in 2007 and 2008, even in the absence of major disasters which fueled the growth of online giving for relief and animal welfare organizations in previous years.
Over the past few years, online giving has become an increasingly significant source of new donor acquisition. These online donors give much larger gifts but have slightly lower retention rates than traditional donors.
Online giving is not a strong renewal channel; every year, large numbers of online donors migrate away from online giving and to other channels, primarily direct mail.
Donors to direct mail – the primary giving source for most organizations – rarely give online. In the relatively rare cases when mail donors do give online, they tend to give higher average gifts – both before and after their first online gift.
Offline donors who have an email address on file, and who have no record of giving online, give far more per year and retain and reactivate at higher rates than those who do not have an email address on file.
Donors in the southwest and mountain regions of the United States are disproportionately more likely to give online.

Channel Flipping Continues
The 2006 analysis highlighted the channel switching trend from online to offline, and the 2008 findings continue to show this trend. Online donors switch to offline giving channels, but offline donors rarely switch to online. This reinforces the importance of an integrated approach to managing your donor relationships. This is a trend that plays out over time as 37% of the donors acquired online in 2006 who gave in both 2007 and 2008 never gave online again in either of their subsequent years of giving after their acquisition year. The key is to leverage integrated multi-channel strategies to identify and cultivate these donors over time.

Online-only Donors are Less Loyal
While online giving continues to be a major growth engine for nonprofits there are some concerns around retention and donor loyalty. Over the past three years of analysis, online donors have consistently renewed at rates slightly lower than traditional donors. Online-acquired donors have significantly higher lifetime value in aggregate than mail-acquired donors because their larger initial gifts and greater gifts in later years compensate for their lower levels of loyalty. But online-acquired donors are actually underperforming their mail-acquired giving-level equivalents. By contrast, multi-channel donors have much better retention rates for organizations in the analysis.

Online Giving is Key to Long-Term Success
Online donors in the analysis represent less than 10% of the total donor file, but these organizations have been growing their online giving for several years now. They are embracing new channels and combining them with their existing fundraising practices to maximize their relationships with donors. These organizations understand what a critical role the Internet plays in their current and future fundraising programs.

Learn More
Nonprofits of all sizes can gain key insights from the findings of the 2008 donorCentrics™ Internet Giving Benchmarking Analysis. A webinar will be held on April 16th to review the findings in more detail. You can register online for the webinar here. This is one of many key Internet resources that Blackbaud makes available to the nonprofit community.

Can't Miss Conferences and Early Bird Deadlines

Steve MacLaughlin — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 14:30:00 GMT

There are a number of nonprofit conferences throughout the year. From an Internet and technology standpoint, two of the best conferences in the first few months of 2009 are:

Target User Forum
April 5 - 8 | Boston

The Target User Forum has developed a reputation as the conference for larger nonprofits engaged in advanced direct marketing, online innovation, and major gift fundraising.

The keynote speaker this year will be Josh Bernoff, co-author of Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies. Josh is one of the most sought after speakers on the topic of practical, data-based strategies for getting results from social networks.

There will also be a number of tracks about online fundraising best practices, direct mail and direct marketing strategies, and several other topics. The early bird registration deadline is February 13th.

NTEN's Nonprofit Technology Conference
April 26 - 28 | San Francisco

The NTC brings together 1,200 people from across the nonprofit industry in one of the biggest and best conferences of the year. The sessions, the speakers, the networking, and the chance to engage with peers from across the sector make the registration price a steal.

NTC's opening plenary speaker is Clay Shirky, author of Here Comes Everybody and a well respected writer and thinker about trends in social media and technology.

The session topics for NTC cover a wide variety of areas including online fundraising, advocacy, integrated marketing, technology infrastructure, Web 2.0 and social media, and much much more.

The early bird registration deadline is January 31st. And remember that NTEN members save $200 on their NTC registration.

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q3 2008

Steve MacLaughlin — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:01:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the third quarter of 2008. The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 74 organizations, including over 37 million donors and more than 68 million gifts totaling over $2 billion in revenue . The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Revenue and Donor Trends
Index revenue declined a median -1.1% from the first three quarters of 2007 to the first three quarters of 2008. However, 44% of the organizations in the index did have positive revenue growth from Q3 YTD 2007 to Q3 YTD 2008.

Donor numbers in the index fell a median -2.0% from the first three quarters of 2007 to the first three quarters of 2008. Donors have been declining consistently for the past three years, although 43% of the organizations in the index had positive donor growth over the period.

Revenue per donor has been steadily increasing for the past three years. Revenue per donor grew 2.2% from Q3 YTD 2007 to Q3 YTD 2008, after 3.8% growth over the same period one year before. 72% of the organizations in the index had revenue per donor increases. But revenue per donor growth no longer makes up for the donor decreases and overall revenue has declined.

Lagging Economic Impact
Target Analytics has noted once again that the falling donor populations across the index may be due to a mix of factors including economic changes, a changing generational profile in the United States, changing attitudes of donors about giving, and a change in focus by fundraisers toward higher-dollar donors. Historically, charitable giving falls as a percentage of national Gross Domestic Product. Revenue declines in the second and third quarters of 2008 also indicate that nonprofit direct marketing may be slightly lagging economic trends.

Political Campaign Impact
The Index report also addresses the potential impact of the recent domestic election campaigns on nonprofit fundraising. Citing the Giving USA 2007 study, the report points out that while 70% of the U.S. population gives to charity every year, only 1% to 2% of the population gives to presidential candidates or campaigns. While it is possible that some individual organizations working on causes highlighted by the campaigns may be positively or negatively affected by campaign fundraising, national non-profit fundraising in general should experience no effect from it.

Different Sectors. Different Trends.
Animal welfare, environmental, and international relief organizations had revenue increases in the first three quarters of 2008 compared to the same period one year earlier, while health, human services, and societal benefit organizations had declines. The only sectors to experience donor increases this quarter were animal welfare and international relief, while environmental donors remained flat and all other sectors had donor declines.

There is plenty more in the summary report that is worth examining. More information from the results can be found online here.

Index of National Fundraising Performance - Q1 2008

Steve MacLaughlin — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:54:00 GMT

Target Analytics, a Blackbaud company, announced the latest Index of National Fundraising Performance for the first quarter of 2008. The index compares trends in key fundraising indicators from 72 organizations, including over 36 million donors and more than 66 million gifts totaling over $1.8 billion in revenue. The index findings include giving data from direct mail, online, telemarketing, events, and other fundraising channels. You can get a complete summary of the latest index findings here.

Helen Flannery, a Project Director with Target Analytics, co-authored the report and provided these comments about the findings: "Direct marketing organizations struggled this past quarter. It looks like societal benefit and international relief organizations had the most difficult time. But there are some bright spots in among the bad news; animal welfare and environmental organizations both had revenue growth in the first quarter, and animal welfare organizations also had huge increases in new donor acquisition.”

Nonprofits in the Index of National Fundraising Performance saw donor numbers in the index fall -4.0% from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008. Revenue fell -1.8% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008. This was the first time in two and a half years that revenue fell, but revenue per donor grew 2.1% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008, on top of 3.6% growth over the same period one year before.

The findings continue to show a year-over-year decline in donors from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008 that is part of a longer-term pattern. In spite of disaster-related spikes in 2005, donors were down significantly in total over the past three years. From the twelve months ending Q1 2005 to the twelve months ending Q1 2008, donors declined a cumulative -5.0%.

The index findings note that rolling index revenue has historically grown at an average of about 1% per quarter. Revenue continued to slow throughout 2007, paralleling the weakening economy, and had a steep downturn in the first quarter of 2008. When adjusted for inflation, revenue has actually declined -3.6% in real dollars over the same time period from Q1 2005 through Q1 2008.

It is important to note that this is also the first time in several quarters that increased per donor revenue could not make up for the overall donor decreases. For most organizations, overall donor declines have been due primarily to declines in new donor acquisition. New donors declined -2.3% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008, on top of a -5.3% decline over the same period one year before.

Donor retention and reactivation rates are also playing a role in donor declines. Retention rates dropped by -2.4% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008. The greatest decreases in retention came in first-year donor retention, which declined -6.6% in Q1 2008 over the same quarter one year before. Reactivation rates declined -5.0% from Q1 2007 to Q1 2008.

Keep in mind that the first quarter of the year typically contains the smallest number of donors for the year and donors have only had three months to renew. These factors all impact the statistics and trends. Please also note that individual payments greater than $5,000, soft credits, and matching gift payments are excluded from the index findings.

The Animal Welfare and Environmental sectors had the best performance among all the other groups. The Societal Benefit sector continued to have the biggest challenges and Human Services was essentially flat. International Relief witnessed the biggest decrease in new donor acquisition followed by the Health sector. More detailed information from the results can be found online here.

Signal to Noise Ratio

Steve MacLaughlin — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 14:02:00 GMT

There's some noise out there today. Here's some more signal to listen to that should cut through the static:

The Baudcast - Episode 9
This episode's panel discusses the Kintera acquisition announcement, the Internet Symposium, BBNC mashups, the Causes data report, mobile giving, the 3G iPhone 3G, Socialthing!, NTEN Office Hours, and more. The panel discussion includes Chad Norman (Internet Marketing Manager), Melanie Milonas (Public Relations Manager), Allison Van Diest (Product Marketing Manager), Garrett Keating (The U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association & Foundation) and me.

Blackbaud Interviews - Episode 1
Host Melanie Milonas, Blackbaud’s public relations manager, is joined by Chuck Longfield, founder of the Target companies and Blackbaud’s chief scientist; and Jay Love, eTapestry’s founder and CEO. This inaugural episode of Blackbaud Interviews features these leaders’ views on consolidation within the sector and within the software industry serving it, and the emergence of Software as a Service (SaaS). In addition, Chuck and Jay share their experience with the integration of the Target companies and eTapestry with Blackbaud since the merger

Enjoy!

Team Approach User Forum '08 - Day 2

Steve MacLaughlin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 19:01:00 GMT

This morning got started with Jon Duschinsky's keynote address. He started things off with the Shift Happens video that many of you might have seen on YouTube. His session is called "Fundraising on a Pancake - Are You Ready for the Flat Philanthropic World?" Jon is a very energetic speaker. Just what many of us needed on an early Tuesday morning. Jon is a big believer that in five years every nonprofit organization in the US will be in competition internationally for fundraising dollars.

Part of Jon's presentation was a deep dive on Médecins Sans Frontières' website and how it looks more like the BBC homepage than a nonprofit's homepage. Duschinsky really focused on the global philanthropic opportunity that is take shape faster than most people think. And he made the point that "vision" is the most powerful tool you have to make meaningful change in your organizations and the world. Jon used a variety of images and videos, including one from Croix-Rouge Française (French Red Cross) that can be found here on YouTube. His final point was simple and direct: Get out there and make it happen.

After this session I'm going to sit in on Richard McPherson's "The Future of Online Fundraising: The Changing Rules of Web 2.0" session. I had the chance to finally meet him in person last night. I highly recommend his Digital Giving book for people still trying to get a handle on all this online stuff.

Then I'm going to try and catch Chuck Longfield's "Passion Matters: Modeling and Cultivation Strategies for the Donors Who Love You Most" session. I always try to hear Chuck's presentations as I end up taking pages and pages of notes. (He has more stories from the fundraising world than I have analogies.)

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Team Approach User Forum '08 - Day 1

Steve MacLaughlin — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 18:35:00 GMT

Another week. Another conference. This time it's the Team Approach User Forum here in Boston. This is my first time at the conference and I'm really looking forward to many of the sessions. There are about 600 people in attendance at this year's event and the opening session of the day of jam packed.

Today starts off with the "Welcome to Better Ideas for Better Fundraising" general session that was presented by Lee Gartley (President, Target Analytics and Target Software), Marc Chardon (CEO, Blackbaud), and Chuck Longfield (Target Founder and Blackbaud Chief Scientist).

Lee Gartley started off by talking about some of the new clients that have implemented Team Approach during the past year and highlighting some of the other changes that have taken place. Lots of growth in terms of staff, product development, and technical infrastructure. Lee also noted that there are about 100 vendors in attendance at the conference as well.

Marc Chardon was next up on stage and he spent some time discussing five big trends Blackbaud is seeing in the nonprofit space. Here are some notes from Marc's remarks:

Needs are growing - Governments are funding less and less. Demands on programs are growing more and more.
Number of nonprofits are growing - New organizations continue to take shape and increase competition for fundraising dollars.
Need for accountability is growing - Donors, agencies, and others all want more information about where their donations are going.
Donors are changing but not growing - Average donation is up, but the number of new donors is down. There is a need to engage the millennial generation.
Need to better leverage technology - The technology allows nonprofits understand the entire relationship, just not it's parts.

Chuck Longfield began his presentation with a few quips about sight and memory that got some good laughs. Chuck reflected on the past year and discussed some of the challenges that nonprofits are facing. One point Chuck made was how things like donorCentrics and other data services are transforming how customers are turning their systems into powerful knowledge tools. The future of these systems is taking fundraising knowledge and using it to call attention to and provide direction for users about what their data is really telling them. Chuck went on to note that the key metric on acquisition is the ability to retain the donor. If all your acquisition cost is up-front, then your ability to retain that donor beyond the first year only helps to control fundraising costs. But retaining the donor takes patience and it will take some different approaches and technology.

Stat of the Day: By not printing all of the presentations from the conference over 250,000 sheets of paper have been saved.

Later this morning I am presenting a session called "Let's Get Personal - Leveraging Information to Enhance and Drive Results from your Donors Online Experience" which will focus on some familar themes. I will also be showing how far we've come with Blackbaud NetCommunity Universal since last year's conference. It was just about a year ago when Blackbaud CTO Shaun Sullivan gave an early glimpse of the product.

I had the chance to sit in on the "Benchmarking Online Fundraising: How to Measure Success" session earlier this morning. Carol Rhine from Target Analytics presented some new findings from the latest donorCentrics online benchmarking studies. Andrea Palten from American Humane Association talked about their online presence and some important lessons that they have learned with metrics. Peter Kaizer from Catholic Relief Services had some tips and tricks around using email. A good variety of information, stories, and also some challenges being faced on the multichannel communication front.

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